Baku / 03.05.18 / Turan: In recent years, journalists and bloggers in Azerbaijan have been constantly under attack from the authorities. The reason is that the media were in the vanguard of the struggle for freedom, an alternative opinion and it was journalists who often disrupted many of the authorities' anti-democratic plans. In response, the authorities planted and imprisoned journalists.
Such an opinion was expressed in the interview to the Cətin Sual program (Difficult issue) of the Turan agency by Avaz Zeynalli, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Khural, former prisoner of conscience.
According to him, critical media have extremely limited access to information sources, and media legislation is constantly tightening. Journalists are even forbidden to receive information even about the founders of companies and holdings.
At the same time, the security risks of independent journalists are growing. Now it is difficult not only to conduct investigations, but even to receive public information, access to archives. The choice of the media is not great - either go over to the authorities in exchange for money and generous gifts, or go to jail.
Examples of this are the arrests of the director of the Turan agency Mehman Aliyev and the head of Internet TV "Kanal 13" Aziz Orujov.
At the same time, more than 10 journalists and bloggers remain in prisons: Seymour Hazi, Afgan Mukhtarly, bloggers Rashad Ramazanov, Ilkin Rustamzade and others.
Noting the need for reforms in the field of media freedom, Zeynalli said that they should be aimed at creating conditions for free activity of independent media. In the present conditions, when the rules dictated by the media structures created by the authorities - the Press Council, the State Media Support Fund, the press does not have either an economic or an intellectual future, Zeynalli believes.
In his opinion, it is also necessary to create alternative media structures that will be able to withstand these negative trends and ensure pluralism of opinions and journalistic ethics.
In this direction, the Media Club, established recently by a group of well-known journalists, will operate.
If alternative media do not self-organize, the future of independent media is under threat, Zeynalli assured. -03B06-
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